Florida State's Tiffany McCarty (14) keeps the ball in front of the Wake Forest goal during the women's soccer ACC Championship game in Cary, N.C., on Sunday.

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It might have been the toughest stretch in his seven seasons as Florida State's soccer coach, but Mark Krikorian never doubted that his team could be right where it is today — playing at home in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Between mid-September and mid-October, the Seminoles uncharacteristically lost five of seven matches in Atlantic Coast Conference play.

But FSU came storming back in the final two weeks of the regular season and carried that momentum into the ACC tournament, winning three straight matches to claim the school's first conference championship. ...